if anyone wants to know about fracking please come to the youngstown, ohio area. we now have earthquakes that scientists have attributed to fracking. the industry experts will tell you the earthquakes have nothing to do with them shooting chemicals into the shale we were built on but how does that make sense? the entire purpose of fracking is to break up and destabilize pockets of shale deep beneath your community.

another thing we have found, fracking turns neighbor against neighbor. on a conventional gas well everyone within a certain radius gets royalties. in fracking the process is horizontal so it can take the natural gas from right below your home and break up the rock your home was built on but only your neighbor who agreed to set up the fracking rig on their property gets paid.

The only thing I read that I agree with from Susan is that the problem also has to do with the disposal of the waste. After the chemical / water mixture is pumped into the ground, the residual water must then be trucked off and disposed of, but what often happens (as far as I understand) is that usually dumped locally into fields and what not compounding the net effect on the local water supply.

That is not to say that the practice itself isn't dangerous... there is also the fact that we have yet to learn what kind of effect the whole process has on the stability of the land above it... We don't know if there could be longterm effects like making surrounding areas more susceptable to earth quakes, etc. (again not a geologist so this is a shot in the dark) but to me something about breaking up and extracting the shale gas layer strikes me as dangerous longterm aswell.

But hey do want to hear something nuts?! There is actually a movement in Canada right now to investigate the potentional longterm effects of Wind turbines on humans. This actually has traction & receiving press... which to me is unbelievable... especially when you consider the process of extracting oil from the Alberta tarsands receives little or no regulatory scrutiny. We are in significant trouble here people. The public has a right to know.

Susan I have to disagree with your statement about them drilling "so far below the water table that it doesn't pose a threat". They are hydrolically fracturing shale and shale is extrememly unstable with out chemicals being pumped into it under high pressure. As we all know water or other liquid will follow the path of least resistance and there isn't any garantee the chemical stew will stay where they put it.

It isn't just the act of hydro fraking that we have to worry about though. We must protect against the injection of the liquid byproduct of fracking which is being injected into deep wells all over the Earth.

I do agree that we must find alternatives to fossil fuels but unfortunately oil companies aren't on board with that thought process and as long as they continue to influence everything we will never grow as a civilization.

I live in one of the counties that Mr. Cuomo has targeted and some people are all for fracking because they believe the rhetoric spewed forth by the companies pushing to drill our land. They believe them when they say "We inject a sand and water mixture deep into the groud, well below the water table". They omit the chemical coctail because they are protected by an insane law that says they do not have to disclose the chemicals used. Fortunately, others in the community realize that they are lying by refusing to disclose the chemicals used. Those of us speaking out against fraking also know that water is one of the most precious componants needed to sustain life. We have a finite supply of natural water resources and once they're gone, they're gone.

There is a horizontal drilling rig (not fracking) that was set up on a hill across from my home and the company doing the drilling told the town board there would be no more than ten trucks per day. I think they meant they would run no more than ten trucks per hour because that is what has happened. Not only are the people that live there dealing with run off issues but the town has to repave the road at taxpayer expense as it has broken the road down. This is something that many people don't consider either.

The problem I see is this -

Many here say "We don't want coal, it doesn't burn cleanly enough!", so they want to eliminate that as a source.

Afterward, you'll hear people talking out against hydroelectric power because of the impact on the rivers that need to have plants set up and the potential environmental impact.

Then, they say "We don't want nuclear power, look what happened at Fukushima!", and they want to close down the plants.

Next, they clamor against fracking by insisting that it can ONLY lead to excessive pollution as if it were the only outcome, insisting that it shouldn't be done.

Well, folks, we've quickly learned that we're NOT going to ever be a solar-powered nation. It just won't happen. Wind turbines can't power everything, either. What on earth do some expect will power the things we depend on daily? I'm sorry, but we're never going to be as "green" as people seem to believe possible, it just is not feasible in the current workings of the world based on excessive costs (which the taxpayers should NOT be saddled with), nor has any study shown it even REMOTELY possible to convert all current methods of powering daily life over to clean sources completely. It's a fantasy that keeps being perpetuated, and does a great disservice to real debate over how to not do excessive damage to the environment while realistically keeping the world moving via the power it requires to do so.

It's a shame that extreme illogical views tend to keep pushing everyone against sources that can be valid, all because people insist on pushing a green agenda that can never, ever come to be. We need to meet in the middle, and being as fracking isn't a guarantee of contamination and pollution, but folks, everything that provides benefit has risk as well. Even wind turbines kill hundreds of thousands of birds every month, so let's not sugar coat things, even the "green" methods still kill and destroy in their own way, ensuring that there's no such things as a truly green or cruelty-free way to provide power to the world. It's unfortunate, but the sooner we wake up to the reality that we can't just kick the old methods to the curb because of a pipe dream that we'll all be living in a solar-powered world one day, the better off we'll be.

Hi Everyone,

I haven't logged on to the site in a while, but as I am sure you are aware, fracking has been going on for a while and it is horrible on a number of different levels. I was watching "Real time with Bill Maher" and the subject came up... Bill mentioned a documentary that i've seen a couple of times called GAS LAND. it talks all about how the oil and gas industries basically can subvert any and all legal environmental protections. I also sites a bill that was passed in congress that categorizes "mining" as something that is acceptable to be doing in National parks. Bottom line is that whether it is "verticle" fracking or "horizontal" fracking it is bad news for our ground water, etc. Not good guys... wish you all the best in getting the word out there about this and the other causes I've read about on this site.

PS. Mark Ruffalo is very vocal about this ... incidentally he was the guest on "Real time" when this came up.

I work as an energy analyst. We've been covering the fracking debate for a couple of years now. Here's a link to a number of fracking stories we covered.